Pinterest now third most popular social network

Pinterest has become the third most popular social network in the United States, behind only Facebook and Twitter, according to one marketing researcher.

An Experian Marketing Services report found marked increases in visitors to Pinterest’s website, including a 50 percent gain from January to February that made it more popular than LinkedIn or Google+.

The Palo Alto, Calif., company has found an ever-growing audience for its digital bulletin boards, which allow users to collect and share digital images and link them to websites. Since co-founder and CEO Ben Silbermann launched the social network in January 2010, it has become especially popular with hobbyists.

Experian research showed that the site’s visitors were demographically different from those visiting other social networks, with women accounting for 60 percent of the visitors and a higher percentage of users in the Midwest, Northwest and Southeast.

Michigan’s tart cherry crop at risk from heat and chill

Northern Michigan’s tart cherry crop is in jeopardy as a spring chill froze buds that appeared during the unusual warm spell in March, farmers and industry leaders said.

It’ll be several more weeks before farmers will be able to determine how badly the crop has been harmed, said Phil Korson, president of the grower-funded Cherry Marketing Institute. And the crop will be vulnerable for another month or so, a period when below-freezing temperatures are commonplace across the region.

Michigan is the nation’s top producer of tart cherries, which are used in pie filling and other products. Orchards in a five-county section of the northwestern Lower Peninsula account for about 180 million pounds a year, nearly 80 percent of the U.S. crop.

Trees developed blossoms during a weeklong heat wave in mid-March, when temperatures topped 80 degrees five days in a row and remained mostly above 60 at night.

Council OKs salmon seasons with plenty of fishing time

Federal regulators will allow plenty of opportunity for fishermen to troll for Pacific Coast salmon as biologists forecast a dramatic rebound in populations of the prized fish.

The Pacific Fishery Management Council on Thursday approved salmon seasons that provide ample fishing time for commercial and recreational anglers in California, Oregon and Washington over the next six months.

The panel’s decision comes as biologists project big increases in salmon populations from the Sacramento, Klamath and Rogue rivers. Their forecast for chinook salmon returning to the Klamath this fall is about four times greater than average and the highest on record since 1985.

That marks a sharp turnaround from just a few years ago, when steep declines in salmon stocks led to the largest fishery closures on record in 2008 and 2009.

Biologists attribute the comeback to wet winters and favorable ocean conditions over the past few years that have allowed salmon to thrive and spawn in large numbers.